dem. pron. and adj. Sc. and north. dial. Forms: (1–6 þa), 6 thai, 6–7 thay, 6– Sc. thae, thoe, 9 theao, n. dial. theea, thee. [Mod. Sc. and north. dial. repr. of OE. and northern ME. þá, tha, midl. and south. ME. THO. For the phonology cf. mae, nae, sae, twae, whae, = OE. má, ná, swá, twá, hwá, Eng. mo, no, so, two, who.]

1

  The Sc. and north. dial. plural of THAT, = ME. þa, THO; mod. THOSE. a. pron.

2

1583.  Leg. Bp. St. Androis, 613. Gude Robert Melwene of Carnebie I shuld not racken in with thea.

3

17[?].  Auld Mailland, v. in Scott, Minstrelsy Sc. Bord. Thou sall hae thae, thou sall hae mae.

4

1780.  J. Mayne, Siller Gun, 1. Her exultation was exprest In words like thae.

5

1790.  Burns, Tam o’Shanter, 151. Now Tam, O Tam! had thae been queans.

6

1873.  Murray, Dial. S. Scot., 182. Dynna teake theae (Don’t take those).

7

  b.  adj.

8

a. 1584.  Montgomerie, Cherrie & Slae, 85. To heir thae startling stremis cleir, Me thocht it musique to the eir.

9

1596.  Dalrymple, trans. Leslie’s Hist. Scot. (S.T.S.), I. 22. Pentland it was called,… evin as this day thae mountanis declairis sa named.

10

1603.  Philotus, lxxviii. And send to ȝow thay claithis vnsene.

11

1786.  Burns, Dream, ix. Thae bonny bairn-lime, Heav’n has lent.

12

1826.  J. Wilson, Noct. Ambr., Wks. 1855, I. 186. Thae broad vine-leaves hingin in the veranda.

13

1837.  R. Nicoll, Poems (1843), 76. But thae hames are gane.

14

1904.  Eng. Dial. Dict. (N. Yorksh.), Wheea’s theea tweea bairns? (Northumb.) Thee kye; thee folk.

15